Women in the UK are earning 35% less than men in 2024, according to worrying new research by job search engine Adzuna.

Its analysis found that between January 2022 and March 2024 the UK’s gender pay gap widened to 35% in March 2024, marking a two-year peak, as working women earned 65 pence for every pound earned by men – and the pay gap is even worse for women of colour.

Concerningly, web developers and photographers were the only roles where males and females earned equal pay. The sectors with the biggest gender pay gap were engineering (53%), construction (52%), and management and consulting (40%). The jobs with the biggest gaps were commercial sales representative (54%), data analyst (53%) and project engineer (48%).

The news follows a report from last year that suggested that women over 40 won’t see the gender pay gap close in their working lifetime. According to the Fawcett Society, at the current rate of change, the gap won’t close until 2051. That’s 27 years from now. It means that women born before 1983 won’t see the gender pay gap close in their working lifetime and before they reach state pension age.

There is a sliver of hope, however. According to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), the number of UK employers failing to report their gender pay gap fell significantly by 71% to just eight companies in 2023, compared to 28 in 2022 and 47 in 2019. 

And as Rachel Reeves, the new chancellor, told Stylist in an interview ahead of the election, she is “determined to be the chancellor that closes that gender pay gap once and for all.” Clearly, this change can’t come soon enough.

Images: Getty